The Darkest Night
by HecateA
Summary: The night that Luke will always describe as the worst night of his life, featuring a very sick Thalia and a forest. Oneshot. Written for the PJO ship weeks.


**Hello friends! So I don't write Thalia and Luke stories outside of the ship weeks, but I am happy with this piece. It's set in a pre-Annabeth era, when they can't be older than 13 because Annabeth's presence adds a cool and cute nuance to their relationship that I didn't want to deal with in this piece because then Luke may explode in this story. I have a feeling that it's a bit long, but I hope that you enjoy it anyways!**

**Disclaimer: I don't own the characters portrayed in this story and I am not a doctor.**

* * *

**The Darkest Night**

* * *

One scream of pain and then scary calm.

That's how Thalia had reacted after getting hurt. Once Luke had dispatched the stupid hellhound and made her drink and wear his hoody, she'd felt better and they'd kept moving- traveling towards Philadelphia and away from Atlantic City because all Hades had broken loose there (literally, Thalia's uncle was on a quest to annihilate her).

There _had _been no reaction to Thalia getting sick, though. Luke had just woken up and realised that he'd slept longer than he should have- Thalia should have woken him up for his guard shift by now.

"Thalia?" he said wandering out of the playground's tunnel where he'd decided to sleep. She'd been perched on this little plastic roof last time he'd seen her. And now…

"Thalia!" Luke screamed.

She was passed out, under the little plastic roof

"Thalia," he said shaking her shoulder. "Thalia."

She didn't wake up, she only moaned.

"Thalia, hey," Luke said touching her cheek and moving his fingers down to her neck, trying to get a pulse. Thalia moaned again. "Come back to me Thalia, what's wrong?"

"I…" she couldn't finish her sentence.

"Does your head hurt?" He asked. If she'd hurt her neck or something- if she'd fallen…

"Leg," Thalia said. Her eyes were still closed.

"Leg?" Luke asked. He touched her leg and she moved it back, whimpering like a little girl. Thalia had _never _whimpered before. Ever.

When he looked at his fingers they were… wet?

"Oh God," Luke said whipping his fingers against his jacket and pulling Thalia's backpack towards him. He rummaged until he found her flashlight and clicked it on. He pulled the leg of her pants up and the beam of light showed a deep, ugly and raw wound.

"Oh God, oh God, oh God…" Luke said tugging at his hair. "Thalia, you didn't _tell me _that you got that hurt the other day!"

No reaction came out of her. Luke rummaged some more, this time for a bottle of water, and he poured half of it on her face. That brought her around.

"What happened?" Thalia asked. "I… got off the roof and…"

Thank the _gods _she'd gotten herself down.

"You passed out," Luke said. "You have some kind of… of leg thing and… Thalia, I think it's infected."

"No, I'm okay," Thalia said sitting up.

Luke pushed her back down. He would weigh her down with bricks if he had to. He kept examining the wound. It was just a regular old hellhound claw mark; they'd both gotten them before. But it'd never looked like… well, like this. The wound was a dark, ugly red and the skin around it was swollen. The skin looked raw and overall it was pretty gross. Blood and something that might be pus leaked from it. Luke wasn't sure. He'd run away from home the day before his boy scouts were going to have their first aid workshop. That seemed pretty stupid, in retrospect. Surely another 24 hours wouldn't have killed him.

"No, it's infected," Luke said. "Jesus Thalia, why did you leave it open?"

"It was just a scratch," Thalia said. "At first…"

It was. Luke knew what she meant. They both got so hurt and bruised up all the time that sometimes they didn't even tell each other. Tree branches would cut up at their ankles, they would whack their heads against branches and the low doorframes of unfamiliar buildings, they got paper cuts off of road maps, slept on the wrong side or on the wrong tree branch, Thalia would give Luke electric shocks whenever she got excited or scared, and there was the occasional embarrassing moment during which you'd try a fancy trick with your sword and slit your hand.

"We have to get out of here," Luke said. "Somewhere safe… You're hurt."

"I'm okay," Thalia said. "Just need to…"

Her eyes rolled to the back of her head.

"Thalia!" Luke said. He touched her forehead. Her skin was hot and sticky, which made his heart beat like even more crazy, but the panic was making the gears in his brain go.

They'd been planning on going to their Philadelphia safe house tomorrow after gathering supplies, and spending some time pigging out on stolen pizza and playing cards there- their idea of a day off. It was hidden in a suburban forest. Thalia had even manipulated the mist to make sure that it would stay hidden and safe until they got back to it. He had to get her there right now. There was some stuff there- a first aid kit, nectar, ambrosia, drinking water, blankets…

He pulled Thalia's pants leg down and hauled their two backpacks over his shoulders, before dragging her to the playground's slide. They slid down, and then Luke threw her arm over his shoulder, wrapping his around her waist.

"I can walk," she said faintly.

"Yeah, not happening," Luke said.

They were about an hour away from the forest, and then Luke would have to _find _the safe house. According to his watch it was 10:24. The chances that they made it no problem were very, very slim.

Luke bit his lip. He had bus tickets on him, from having swiped them from a guy's back pocket earlier (if you were stupid enough to keep something in your back pocket, it was fair game to the pickpockets). But he didn't know the routes or the schedule, and how did you explain lugging your passed out friend around in the middle of the night? You didn't.

He started walking anyways. Did he have cash on him? Not enough to hail a cab. Besides, that would ring alarm bells too…

Luke hotwired a car, lay Thalia down in the backseat of the car, and drove off before anyone could notice.

He wasn't actually sure where he was and how he was going to get to the safe house, but Luke had learned that when you were hotwiring a car, it was more important to get out than to get somewhere in particular.

* * *

**10:37 PM**

He struggled to carry Thalia through the dark forest without

a) Dropping her in a ditch of some sort

b) Tripping over a dead tree or some roots or a body or something

c) Getting stuck in low plants and branches littering the floor

d) Not looking around like a paranoiac, fearing monsters at every turn or shrub.

Thalia held the flashlight, although sometimes the beam faltered, and gave him directions until Luke realised that they were going around in circles. She was confused. Her bright eyes, usually so piercing and clear, were hazy.

He started looking for his own landmarks.

* * *

**10:45** **PM**

His movements were awkward, but it was weird to move with Thalia still hanging on his back. Luke spread a blanket as best as he could before laying Thalia down. He tied his flashlight to the ceiling, but his movements were so quick and rash and hurried that he just screwed himself over and got frustrated.

"Luke, relax," Thalia croaked.

"I'm perfectly calm," he said.

He pulled Thalia's pant leg up to expose her injury again and just starred at it. He realised that he was touching his hair a lot, which he always did when he was panicking.

He calmed himself down. He and Thalia tended to rub off on each other when emotions ran high, and Luke couldn't let that happen right now. She couldn't sense his worry.

"Lia?"

"Yeah?" She mumbled.

"I'm going to clean out your wound," Luke said. He realised that he was talking himself into it. Luke _hated _blood.

"Okay," Thalia said. Usually she argued with him much more than that. That was maybe more alarming than the gaping wound-hole in her leg.

Luke took a quick inventory of the supplies he had. It added up to: a basic first aid kit, some bottled water (that should theoretically be clean), some spare clothes, some blankets and a stash of nectar and ambrosia.

Best to start with the mortal stuff. See how it went.

He pushed the blanket away from under Thalia's foot and took her shoe and sock off. Her toes dug into the pine bedding. Luke felt awkward, kneeling in the dirt and holding a ripped piece of an old towel in one hand, and a water bottle in another.

"I don't know if this is going to sting?" He warned her.

"One way to find out," Thalia mumbled. She hadn't moved since Luke had put her down.

He poured about a quarter of the water on her wound and Thalia's toes immediately curled.

"Sorry," Luke said. "Sorry, sorry, sorry…"

"It didn't hurt," Thalia said. She was slurring.

Luke did it again and rubbed at the injury. Thalia was biting her hand and Luke extended his hand to her. She grabbed it without question. So now Luke was doing all of this with his left hand only. Not ideal, but he was making it work.

"I'm going to cover it, okay?" Luke said.

"It's cold," Thalia said.

"Huh?"

"Cold here," Thalia said.

"I can build a fire or something," Luke said. "Let me just cover it first. Here, have some ambrosia too."

Thalia held out a shaking hand, so Luke pushed the square to her lips.

"Tastes good?" Luke asked.

"Yeah," Thalia said. "Like the biggest burger you've ever had."

Luke smiled. Thalia had once heard that ambrosia was supposed to taste the same to one person all the time, but theirs changed all the time. Luke guessed that it depended on when the last time they'd had a proper meal was.

"You get some sleep, Lia."

Thalia nodded and closed her eyes. Her grip on Luke's hand only relented a few minutes later.

* * *

**11:20 PM**

"Thalia… Thalia!" Luke said. She was moaning in her sleep, as if she was having a bad dream, and sweating buckets and shivering. Luke was starting to panic, and taking inventory wasn't helping anymore. He had water, sure. He had ambrosia, fine. But what else? He didn't have any antibiotics or cream or anything else that could get rid of a problem that was already _there. _

She didn't open her eyes much, and that scared Luke. Thalia Grace slept like a rabbit. One sound and she was wide awake and fully operational. To see her out like a light this way…

He needed to fix it. But he didn't have the tools…

"Okay Thalia," Luke said. "I'm going to go see if I can find anything that can help you. You have to stay right here, no matter what. The mist will protect you."

"Old magic," she slurred.

"Well, it's held up this long, it'll hold up some more," Luke said reaching into her backpack and taking her flashlight. He emptied it in a corner of the shelter, and swung it over his shoulder before kneeling next to her.

"I'll leave you the light, okay?" Luke said. "And you've got Aegis right at your wrist. You'll be fine until I get back."

Thalia tried to nod. Luke pushed her hair out of her forehead and kissed it.

He left the shelter, determined to get back as quickly as possible.

* * *

**11:15 PM**

Thalia didn't like it when he stole blatantly from stores and houses and stuff, but Luke didn't have a choice. They needed supplies that the safe house didn't have- they didn't _have _these problems usually. So he promised that he'd stay away from mortal houses, drove into town, and ditched the car a few roads down from the pharmacy.

Another thing Luke didn't have the time to be careful either- so when he broke into the first drug store that he saw, he wasn't planning on it being his cleanest work. He was about to kick down the door when a voice inside his head whispered; _if you get caught, they'll never find her and she may just die in that stupid safe house. _

It was probably the voice of sanity.

Luke went around to the back and found the back door of the store. He took a few cards out of the deck in his back pocket (the deck he and Thalia had been supposed to play War and Go Fish with later today) and jimmied the lock on the doorknob before getting into the store's backroom. He tapped his fingers against the alarm pad and let them enter the code on their own accord before turning on the lights.

He was in the backroom, but he didn't feel like rummaging through boxes so he proceeded into the store. The store was old- very old if it had a knob lock- so he wasn't too scared of cameras being hooked up to alarms and whatnot. The store itself was dark and these lights were ones that Luke didn't want to open. He let his eyes get used to the darkness and started rummaging around.

The pharmacy was in the back, so Luke started there. He picked up everything that looked relatively useful and stuffed it in the empty backpack he'd brought- bandages, gauze, medical tape, polysporin, all the lotion he could find, band-aids (with and without Spiderman), ace bandages… he even found a book on first aid.

He extended his raid to the rest of the drug store and grabbed chocolate milk, ponchos, bottled water, protein bars, a box of crackers, a loaf of bread, a jar of peanut butter, and a few other things.

He didn't even bother restarting the alarm before he ran back out.

* * *

**12:03 AM**

He dropped to his knees as soon as he got back to the safe house and emptied his bag.

"Hey," he said. "Okay, okay Thalia, we're back on track."

"Okay," she said sluggishly.

"I can disinfect this thing, I think," Luke said finding a small tube in the backpack. He twisted the cap off and smeared some Polysporin straight onto Thalia's wound. It made her hiss a bit, but Luke didn't pay attention. If he did he'd feel guilty and stop. Then he covered it up with an ace bandage.

"How'd you feel?" Luke said.

She was shivering, despite the two hoodies and blanket that he'd wrapped around her. Luke checked her temperature.

"I've had better," Thalia said.

She was burning up, and so Luke took the extra layers off and managed to wiggle Thalia out of her jacket and t-shirt. He cut off the leg of her pants.

Okay. So now instead of having a friend with an infection he had a half-naked, feverish infected friend. He wasn't sure if this was progress.

Seeing Thalia this way was scary. They'd seen each other through fifty shades of ugly. He'd seen Thalia Grace hot in the summer, cold in the winter, sweaty after a fight or a daring escape from cops, clean after they broke into houses to shower, happy, sad, soaking wet in the rain, in tears, vomiting after eating some weird mushroom… but never this bad.

"Hang on," Luke said. "I've got aspirin."

"My hero," Thalia muttered.

Luke raised her up a bit, which she didn't like at all, and fed her the aspirin and a sip of water. She didn't move much after that.

He had to get her to cool down.

He opened a bottle of water and took Thalia's discarded pants leg. He started sponging her down, but she kept sweating and trembling. How high did a fever get before it became dangerous?

He checked in his first aid manual –a Red Cross issued book. He hadn't had to read a text in so long. Usually he was looking at maps, street names, or EXIT signs, but he managed to struggle through the dyslexia to determine that if Thalia's temperature climbed over 105 degrees Fahrenheit Luke should call an ambulance.

"Don't," Thalia said. He hadn't realised that he was reading out loud. "I don't want to go to a hospital."

"I know Lia, but worst comes to worst…"

"It won't," she said. "You've got my back."

Luke swallowed. "That I do."

He wiped the cool cloth against the back of her neck and she sighed and dozed off.

* * *

**12:20 AM**

Luke had taken the bandage off to see how Attempt #1 to heal Thalia had gone. Thalia's wound looked just as raw as it had before. How long was this supposed to take to work?

With a bottle of water, Luke attempted to clean the bandage before putting it back on Thalia's leg. He didn't know how sanitary this actually was, of course. He didn't know how clean anything was. Sure, he'd put hand sanitizer on but did that really do anything? Thalia was lying on the ground in the middle of the woods, on some yellowed pine needles and a blanket that may have hosted a family of mice or something while they'd been away. Luke didn't even want to _think _of the horrible and disgusting places in which they'd slept while her leg was in this state…

No wonder it'd gotten infected. And how could he keep it from doing that again? _Could _he? The sense of being in way over his head overcame him like vertigo.

"Luke," Thalia said. "It's hot."

"Yeah, I know," Luke said springing back to life and trickling some water down the back of her neck.

* * *

**12:55 AM**

It occurred to Luke that in every single hospital soap opera that had ever aired on his mother's television, the people were always hooked up to IVs to keep them on "fluids".

"Thalia," Luke said. "Lia?"

"Hmm?" She said.

Luke pressed a water bottle to her lips and Thalia moaned and turned away.

"No Lia, you've got to drink," Luke said. "You've got to stay hydrated. Lia, drink."

"Mmm," she said turning away like a stubborn child.

Luke moved behind her and lowered her head onto his knees. He made her drink, which she sleepily swatted at him for, but Luke got the water down her throat and into her system.

Thalia coughed and Luke rubbed her arm soothingly. Or at least he hoped that it was soothing.

* * *

**1:07 AM **

Thalia threw up for the first time.

Luke mostly swore in response, but he also wiped her mouth and changed the pine needle bedding and felt extremely happy that she'd missed the blanket and also extremely guilty. What if she'd thrown up because he'd made her drink?

They hadn't eaten much in the last few days –the last proper meal they'd had was some raw Pillsbury crescent dough that had fallen out of some lady's grocery bag and that she'd picked up for them, which was as appetizing as it sounded- and so Luke was assuming that this was going to be it.

He was wrong. She threw up and didn't miss the blanket this time, so Luke managed to slide a new one underneath her and bring the old one outside. He dunked it in a stream a couple of times (he wasn't very neat about it, being far from Thalia made him nervous) and hung it up on a tree.

He checked his Red Cross book to make sure that the vomiting was because of the infection and not because of a bigger problem. He was right. More or less.

Sometimes vomiting was a sign that an infection may have become something called sepsis which turned into septic shock which could lead to death and should be brought to immediate medical attention.

Luke just about threw the book across the shelter. No way was he getting Thalia to a hospital, she'd already been clear on that.

"Luke?"

"Are you going to be sick again?" He worried.

"No, I'm just cold," Thalia said.

Luke looked around. He didn't want to put a sleeping bag on her in case she _did _throw up again, and he didn't have any other clean blankets.

He laid down behind her so that he could bury her face in his neck and put an arm around her waist. Thalia snuggled into him and she went back to sleep.

* * *

**1:38 AM**

Luke changed Thalia's bandage again. Her wound didn't look any better.

"You got yourself good, Grace," Luke muttered to himself.

"Sick is what I aim for," Thalia muttered. He looked up. He hadn't realised that she was awake. He smiled.

"Congrats," he said. "Achievement unlocked."

"I'm feeling better," Thalia said.

"You liar. Your leg looks worst."

"Mmm," Thalia said. She fell asleep again.

* * *

**2:05 AM**

Thalia had been in and out of troubled sleep since he'd found her. Even in the car she'd been this way. Whenever she was awake, Luke made her drink some water and asked her how she was doing. Sometimes she cracked jokes, but not anymore.

Luke was always terrified when he realised that she was going back to sleep. Because _was _it sleep? Was she falling unconscient? At this point he didn't know how sick she was so…

Luke took to talking to her when she was awake. He told her about anything he could- about how he was hearing owls outsides and how a snake had slithered through the cabin when he'd been in, and last time he'd gone outside to make sure that they were alone he'd seen eagles in the trees. He talked to her about how he'd been craving that pizza so she better still be up for it that afternoon. He got so desperate to keep her awake that he even started talking about _home, _about the random things he used to find in the woods on his way to school, the way his room had been decorated, how his favourite teacher had turned into a harpy on the day that he'd finally gone to her for help with his mom, and so he'd run away…

"I never told you how things were with my mom…" Luke said with a sad smile. And he even told her about that. He was pretty sure that she was out cold anyways, so he just let the words spill- all of them. Every detail, every bad memory (the ones that usually only came in nightmares), every emotion...

"Mine was a drunk," Thalia said. "Couldn't take care of- couldn't take care of- her own- her own- kid… got lost…"

The exhaustion in her voice and the way she was messing up her pronouns when she was usually the first to slap Luke and tell him that he better remember how often he got beat up by girls got him… it made Luke realise that she needed her rest. Rest was the way that people got better.

"It's okay," Luke said. "Sleep tight, Lia."

He even remembered a stupid lullaby to sing to her.

* * *

**2:29 AM**

Usually she woke up to vomit, which meant that Luke was rotating blankets way too often- and usually before the last one was dry again. That made him nervous. She was already sick; he didn't have to make it worst…

He was outside hanging a new blanket on a tree by the safe house when he felt the air turn cold.

Thalia felt these things all the time. She said that it felt the same way that it did right before lightning was about to strike, just a pinch to the gut, but instead of harmlessly flashing through the sky, she felt like the lightning was actually going to hurt those around her. She got protective and armed herself when she felt these things

Luke drew his sword just in time to catch the hellhound on the paw. The thing yelped in pain and backed away.

"You better be kidding me!" Luke said. "You better be _so _kidding me right now. You know what, my best friend is dying in that safe house, not that the word 'best friend' covers it, and it's because of some kind of monster filth like you so you _better _not be attacking me right now because I will send you so far into Tartarus, it'll be news to Hades!"

The hellhound growled.

With a swing of Luke's sword and an angry shout, the hellhound was gone into dust.

* * *

**2:45 AM**

While Thalia slept, Luke didn't have anything else to do except for cleaning bandages, recounting the inventory and looking out for more unwanted visitors. And even if he did, he wouldn't do it. His attention was entirely on her and her spiraling health. It left too much time for worrying.

_Why couldn't you just be more prepared? You two always knew that this could happen. Why didn't you ever talk about it? You had plans for the zombie apocalypse, but not for this..._

_Are you doing something wrong?_

_What if she dies? _

_What would you do with the body?_

_Would you tell her mother?_

_Is there something you have to do as a demigod for her if she dies?_

_What would you do without her?_

_What would you do without your best friend?_

_No, screw that, what would you do without _Thalia?

He didn't know.

He just kept worrying.

* * *

**3:30 AM**

"I love the stars," Thalia confided in Luke.

"Okay," he said. "I like them too."

This wasn't the _weirdest _observation that Thalia could make, but since they were inside it was pretty weird.

Then she started raising her shaking arms and opening and closing her fists, as if she was trying to touch something.

"So bright," she whispered. "So close."

Oh gods no.

Now she was starting to hallucinate.

* * *

**4:05 AM**

"Luke I want it to stop," Thalia sobbed.

"I want it to stop too, Lia," Luke said.

Thalia was practically in tears.

"Luke I don't want to see it again."

"What don't you want to see, Lia?" Luke said, dabbing at her face with cold water from the stream.

"I want to see him again, Luke. Everything fell apart after he left. I want him back," Thalia said.

"Are you talking about your dad?" Luke asked, confused. Thalia didn't talk much about Zeus. It'd taken months for Luke to even find out that that's who her father was. But Luke knew that however Zeus had pissed Thalia off, he'd done a better job than Hermes had at being a dad.

"He's right there," Thalia said, sobbing. "He hasn't changed."

Luke shushed her soothingly (hopefully) and rubbed her face with more water. It was no use trying to communicate with a hallucinating girl. She may be talking about nothing.

* * *

**4:10 AM**

Luke prayed for the first time.

_I don't know how to do this, am I supposed to just think divine thoughts, do I have to kill a chicken or something or do a hand gesture? Whatever, give a noob a break. Listen Zeus, _Luke thought. _I think she's talking about you, so listen up. I know that you gods don't generally care about us once you've put us into this world, but Thalia's special. There's nobody else like her, there never has been and there never will be. _Plus _she's telling me that she was never supposed to be born, so I guess she's a big deal to you. Please help her out. Help us out. Keep her safe and alive and make her better._

He felt stupid thinking it, but it was true.

* * *

**4:15 AM**

The flashlight went out and Luke swore.

"Damn it! Damn it, damn it, damn it, _now. _You're going to do this _now?"_

He didn't know where the other one was so he ended up on all fours, patting around the cabin for it. He kept swearing, over and over and over.

He couldn't be frustrated at Thalia for getting sick, and he was too busy trying to take care of her to be frustrated at him. So when the stupid flashlight which had worked _fine _until about five seconds ago went out?

Well that was where his anger was going, no question.

Eventually he found the spare flashlight in the safe house's storage, and he managed to replace it in the dark without tripping over himself or accidentally killing Thalia.

* * *

**4:25 AM**

Thalia's breathing was sketchy. She didn't take full breaths like she should. That didn't go well with Luke. If she couldn't _breathe… _and since that was a symptom of septic shock…

He started stuffing things in his bag.

Fuck it, he decided. Fuck it. Fuck what Thalia said and fuck what their rules were. She was only getting worst. He couldn't take the agony of this any longer.

"Thalia, are you with me? Come on, Thalia, come around. We're going to a hospital," Luke said. "To people who can actually help you."

"No," Thalia said sluggishly. "I don't want to."

"It doesn't matter what you want I'm throwing you over my shoulder and carrying you there."

"If we go to a hospital we're done for. They'll bring us back to our parents."

"Thalia, I don't care about that right now," Luke said.

"I do," she said. "We'd be separated."

Luke swallowed hard. Screw what he'd just said, he _did _care. But he cared about Thalia more. She couldn't just die of an infection alone in the woods, her life over before it could really begin with only Luke to remember her.

"I rather go back to my mother's house than see you this way and not do anything," Luke said.

"I rather die than go back to mine's," Thalia said. "Please Luke."

Luke tilted his hair back and grabbed his hair.

"Thalia I've tried _everything," _Luke said.

"No," she said. And that was her last coherent sentence, but it gave Luke shivers because she was right. He hadn't tried everything. But… but there were some things too dangerous for even him to try… Or at least when Thalia was on the line. She wasn't a pincushion or a dart board or a guinea pig. He wasn't taking any risks with her.

* * *

**4:56 AM**

Luke finally decided to clean her wound with nectar. He was going to do it, this last resort. He was going to risk it.

This wasn't common practise for half-bloods, so to speak, but sometimes it did help. But sometimes too much nectar got into your bloodstream and you blew up- same as if you chugged the stuff. Sometimes there was more nectar than illness and it stopped healing you and started killing you. The theme and message here was that using nectar to cleanse yourself and heal wounds was dangerous. But Luke was starting to think that it was the last option he had.

Sure, he could get her proper medical help. But if she went to the hospital, Thalia's life would be saved but she'd eventually run away again and get herself in this kind of mess once more. Besides, would Thalia let any mortal doctor _touch _her? Luke didn't have any money on him anyways- and if you needed that to get treated, he wouldn't be able to get her in anyways. He had to listen to Thalia now, to let her make the hard choices- because she would go ahead and make them anyways. That pigheadedness was something he'd admired about Thalia, but now he was scared of the thought process it inspired.

_Two prayers in one night, _he thought. _You guys are lucky up there. But don't get too excited. Just keep Thalia safe, please, please, please, that's all I need. Keep her safe. _

He took the bottle of ambrosia from the storage bin that had been buried in the sand, and shook it. It looked like apple juice, fizzing up in the bottle.

He held the bottle just over Thalia's wound and was about to put it away. This was too dangerous. He'd been so afraid of losing Thalia all night, this was a sign. This was a signal that she meant too much to him, more than a best friend did, for him to play with her life.

But then he made himself tip it. The nectar poured over Thalia's leg and she screamed.

"I know, I know, I'm sorry," Luke said. Thalia's hands were knotted in the blanket she was laying on and her back arched. But her leg didn't move a hair. Even half-unconscious and rather delusional (she'd started talking to him about bugs crawling on her arms) she knew what was going on.

The wound sizzled. Luke wanted to throw up, but it meant that _something _was happening right?

He put more nectar on the wound and Thalia yelled again. She tried putting her wrist in her mouth to stop herself, but Luke knew that the pain didn't get any more tolerable. If anything, it seemed to hurt her more every time and that might have made him stop if he wasn't so scared of losing her. Losing his best friend would be one thing, but losing Thalia was unfathomable and Luke could not let it happen.

He tipped the bottle again and Thalia screamed again. Tears prickled Luke's eyes and before he knew it, he was crying too. Nerves, fear, fatigue, compassion- whatever it was, it was rushing back to Luke all too quickly and the tears were coming down quietly.

He did this again and again. The wound sizzled again and again. Pus and blood and whatever else came out. Luke whipped it away in between pourings until he had no more nectar left.

He threw the bottle away, whipped the gunk away, smeared some Polysporin on and applied a new bandage.

He hoped that that was enough.

Because if not, nothing would be and he'd lose her.

* * *

**5:37 AM**

She was stable.

Finally.

Luke breathed a sigh of relief.

Light was poking in through the holes in their shelter and the sun was rising. So was Thalia's chest. No more fever, no more shivering, no more weird breathing, no more moaning and hallucinating.

Thalia was sleeping peacefully.

* * *

**8:30 AM**

Thalia came around for the first time and her eyes were clear. That's how Luke knew that she may stick around.

He told her briefly what happened. She'd gotten sick, Luke had brought her here and healed her.

"I remember bits and pieces," Thalia said. "My leg hurt like a bitch. You were calming me down all the time. Except you left for a bit, to get supplies. It was hell of a night."

_The darkest night of my life, _Luke wanted to say. But he didn't. It'd been agonizing, tiring, frustrating, draining and terrifying. Coming so close to losing Thalia had made him realise just how much she mattered to him but… but that much importance was nearly overwhelming for Luke. Thalia wouldn't like it. Besides, she'd just nearly died. She deserved a break.

"Speaking of my leaving," Luke said. "I was _technically _on a medical supply run…"

"But you took more things," Thalia finished. They knew each other too well.

"Hey, don't say it like that," Luke said. "I even have stuff you may like."

Luke showed her the food first and she smiled and clapped at that.

"Not pizza, but peanut butter's good- no arguing about that," Luke said. "I found these Kool-Aid jammers or something- it's like Kool-Aid in juice box forms. I think it's genius, but here's what you're interested in."

Luke produced a bottle of black nail polish, some cheap drugstore earrings and maltesers.

Thalia frowned and sat up, backing herself up to the side of the safe house.

"I figured that I may have to encourage you to get better," he said. "I also figured that you'd probably hate the earrings, but that I should grab them anyways…"

"You're sweet," Thalia smiled. "And they're not even that bad."

_Score._

"Thank you," Thalia said. "For taking care of me. You should get some sleep, you've been up for hours."

"I'm okay, you rest."

"Luke Castellan, go to sleep or this is going to be hell of day too," Thalia said. "I'm okay. Promise. I'll just eat some Maltesers and stand guard."

"And wake me up if you feel sick or tired?"

"Sure," Thalia said. She wouldn't, but Luke couldn't win a fight against her- especially not when she was getting her colors back and looking healthy again.

He put his head down on her lap and he was out like a light.

* * *

**Upcoming ship weeks**

**August**

**03 -09 **- Free Week (author's pick)

**10 - 16 **- Free slash week (author's pick of a same-sex story)

**17 - 23 **- Free friendship week

**24 - 30 **- Chris and Clarisse

**31 - 06 **- Jason and Reyna

**September**

**07- 13 **- Jason and Piper

**14 -20 **- Frank and Hazel

**21 - 27 **- Calypso and Leo

**28 - October 4 **- Percy and Annabeth


End file.
